I browsed around a bit for logos from other languages...
Python
http://www.python.org/images/python-logo.gif
The "snake pair" is visually interesting while still remaining simple.
The typeface is unusual and yet clean and humanistic. The logo is only
slightly marred by the "TM". Overall, elegant and appealing. A.
Caml
http://caml.inria.fr/styles/modern/title-en.gif
This is actually more of a heading than a logo: it continues to the
right edge of the page to close the oval. The typeface is readable, but
the text is a bit verbose, spelling out "The Caml Language" with a
visual nod to its ML roots. B+.
Ruby
http://www.ruby-lang.org/images/logo.gif
An ordinary book typeface with an ordinary picture of an ordinary ruby.
And the strapline "A Programmer's Best Friend" is vague and uninspired.
Bland, but at least inoffensive. C.
Perl
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e0/Programming-republic-of-perl.png
I'm not sure if this is "the Perl logo" or "O'Reilly's Perl logo", but
it's ugly, busy, difficult to read and a bit obscure. The title
"PROGRAMMING REPUBLIC OF" also lends an air of snotty pretension. D.
Apple Dylan
http://osteele.com/projects/images/Dylan.logo-thumb.png
Arty, abstract, vaguely Hermitian, but a bit corporate. Easy to make a
website favicon from, but the actual word "Dylan" is not strictly
included. A-.
All of these get one thing right that the current and most of the
proposed Haskell logos do not: they don't make any reference to the
syntax of the language itself. Doing so seems to miss the point of a
logo: it's supposed to appeal visually, rather than semantically. So I'd
like to see some submissions that don't use lambdas.
--
Ashley Yakeley
Seattle, WA